BOLADE YOU ARE (Episode VI)

Things didn’t get back to complete normalcy, but Bolade felt confident he made the right decision and followed up with the right moves. It has been a week since he was confronted by Tolulope to make a concrete decision to forget about the relationship or get back, calling Tunde’s bluff. He went with the latter but was smart enough to realize his decision might end up being accompanied by undesirable consequences.

The first thing he did after he told Tolulope they should get back with their normal life together was to get in touch with Shina ‘Energy’ to update him on the recent exciting events in his life starting from the day he started dating Tolulope. He took him through Tunde’s threat at the Bukateria, the dead cobra with the note attached and the threatening phone call. He ended with his most recent decision to get back together with Tolulope despite the threats.

Shina refused to hastily conclude Tunde was directly behind the cobra and phone call threats, since there was no concrete evidence to directly implicate the obvious suspect with the dual threat. He assured Bolade he would meet with some key members of the student executive council about the issue, and try to find out more about Tunde; and his involvement – or not – with any clandestine society on campus. He told Bolade to continue with normal daytime activities and continue seeing Tolulope but admonished him to be extra careful when the sun goes down.

Pause here. Read. If you missed the previous episode, stop right here and follow this link (https://www.360nobs.com/2010/07/bolade-you-are-episode-v/) to catch up on the events (and collective decisions) that led up to this point in Bolade’s story. As you would have realized (if you have been following the story), Bolade went for the third option like you all suggested; he said, ‘screw Tunde and his threats’ and went back to his normal relationship with Tolulope. Let’s see how that will play out:

A week passed without any significant event. Bolade went about his normal schoolwork; he had a couple of continuous assessment tests coming up, so he kept late nights studying on campus. When he gets tired, he drives down to one of the close halls of residence to catch a few hours of sleep at some friend’s room before heading back to the study café. The study rooms were never empty so he felt safe. He was yet to sleep overnight at his house since he got back with Tolulope, he won’t accept he was afraid. When Emeka brought it up, Bolade told him he had a lot to cover before the test dates, hence, the overnight study hours on campus.

On Tolulope’s end, he tried to make everything as normal as he could. He was in her room most evenings after lecture, and he took her out for dinner at the Bukateria after every visit, they never ran into Tunde during any of their night outs. It was as if he disappeared after Bolade went back to Tolulope.

It was an uneasy calm.

He called up IK to let him know he was back with Tolulope and there was no further harassment from Tunde. IK said he was surprised, but warned Bolade not to let his guards down too soon.

‘You can never trust these guys, they strike when you least expect it.’ Were IK’s words.

Bolade turned over the words in his mind for a while. IK talks like he knows these guys more than any neutral guy should. Why does he sound so certain anytime he talks about Tunde like that? Bolade thought of mentioning this to Shina but he let it slide. IK tends to exaggerate and there might actually be no substance to his words, no point in getting him under the student union executive council’s scrutiny for nothing.

The tests came and passed. Bolade had no excuse not to sleep in his house any longer, but he still kept late nights in school and went home to sleep in the early hours of the morning. He managed to convince Emeka to sleep over at his place once, which was the only night he got home before midnight. There was still no sign of trouble from Tunde or anybody else.

There was no sign till the Wednesday of the following week.

The first of the series of menacing calls woke him up a few minutes before 5AM on Wednesday; he had slept alone in his house overnight. He checked the caller ID; hidden. So he let it ring. The caller persisted so he picked the call at the third attempt.

‘Hello, who’s this?’ Bolade didn’t bother to hide the annoyance in his voice.

‘Dude, you were warned, now you have to dance to the tune of the music you played.’ There was no mistaking the disguised gruff voice which called him the morning he found the dead snake in front of his house.

‘Who the flip is this? I think you got the wrong dude.’

‘No, I’ve got the right dude. But of course, you are a very wrong dude. Just so you know, we know how you live; we know your every movement. You have been avoiding your house for the past one week plus and you now think it is safe to starting sleeping at your crib now. You just brought a whole truckload of trouble on yourself…’

Bolade was livid with rage.

‘Nicca, who the fu…’

Click. The line went dead.

Bolade was boiling with anger when he dragged himself off the bed.

I must put an end to this one way or the other.

He searched for Shina’s number, gave him a call to tell him about the threat he just received. Shina told Bolade to be calm, he mentioned that his sources informed him that Tunde has been out of town for three days and he even missed a test the previous day but they are still trying to figure out what could be up with him. Shina assured him to keep calm, he was sure whoever it was behind the threat would soon slip and give up a clue for them to work with.

After getting off the phone with Shina; Bolade grabbed a pair of jeans and a polo top, dressed up and dashed out of the house. The sun was yet to rise, so he hastily made for his car and drove off to Emeka’s house. He was surprised he was still able to catch about two hours of sleep after getting to Emeka’s house and explaining about the phone call. Three hours later Bolade went back to his place to freshen up and prepare for school.

The anonymous phone call threats continued during the day sporadically and Bolade kept picking the call hoping to pick up clues during the brief conversations with the person on the other end of the call. There was no such luck. He mentioned it in passing to Tolulope, he made light of the threat and vaguely assured her Shina was dealing with it. Wednesday passed; he passed the night again at Emeka’s and left early in the morning to go prepare for school like the previous day.

The anonymous caller interfered with his day just once on Thursday, it was the same menacing words, and he was beginning to bore Bolade rather than frighten him. The day went by as usual, lectures, study, and dinner with Tolulope. He left school at 10PM to pass the night at Emeka’s place, there was a party going on in the compound and Bolade had trouble falling asleep.

Midnight came and there was no sign the party was going to end anytime soon, Bolade started toying with the idea of going to his house to pass the night. He wanted to wake Emeka to go with him but the loudness of Emeka’s snore indicated he was deep in sleep so Bolade decided against interrupting him. After further thirty minutes of tossing and turning on the bed, Bolade got up, pulled on his pants and stepped out of Emeka’s room. The music was louder outside in the compound. He smirked in disgust as he pushed past a couple of girls throwing up on his way to the car park.

He shook his head and cussed at them under his breath.

Ten minutes later he was almost at his house, he decided to park by the road three houses to the boy’s quarters where he stays. The street was dead quiet. He put off his headlamps and switched off the engine. He got out and started strolling towards his house which was just less than a minute walk from where he parked.

He could have missed it if his eyes hadn’t adjusted quickly to the darkness of the night. There was a flash of moving light in his room. He stopped dead in his tracks. He then took two steps backwards, to hide behind the pine shrubs just beside the main house next to his boy’s quarters. He could hear his heart thumbing loudly against his rib cage.

He glanced over towards his room again. After a few seconds of straining his eyes, he could make out a moving shadow in his room, the intruder had a flashlight with him, which he put on and off like someone searching for something in the dark and not wanting to be detected.

What the flying phork!

Bolade trembled; a mixed emotion of rage and fear.

The burning rage was strong enough for him to find a handy weapon for which to confront the intruder with; but the fear mitigated the reckless urge. He quickly reasoned the intruder could have a more dangerous weapon.

He reached for his phone; which fell off from his trembling hands when he pulled it out of his pocket. The faint light from the phone revealed a club like stick lying close by the shrub Bolade was hiding; he picked his phone and reached for the club.

Bolade could:

i) Call Shina and wait for help to come from the Student Union Executives.
ii) Call Emeka and IK and wait for them to come with help.
iii) Grab the club to go and attack the intruder (with care, of course)

Hi IVVY, a friend once told me about my ‘tenses’ issues a while back, pls could you elaborate more on how they confused you in this story. Thanks for taking time out to respond to this, and thanks for enjoying the story 🙂
BTW, the next episode should be out by next Wed. (it’s a bi-weekly thing)